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Drug development based on an "innovation supply chain" could stifle innovation if drugmakers push small biotech partners to follow a set route, writes Katrine Bosley, former CEO of Avila Therapeutics. "The more innovative the science, the more likely it is that the real challenge is to cultivate a new vision," she writes. Two-way, iterative partnerships bring together big drugmakers' experience with small biotechs' innovation, Bosley writes.

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The biotech industry ranks as a major economic engine in Indiana, supporting 113,000 jobs and $10 billion in exports. "Our elected representatives must defeat misguided patent changes and interventions in Medicare Part D to upgrade the health of all Hoosiers," writes George Huntley, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Maetrics.

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act allowed life sciences startups to have off-the-record conversations with potential investors months before an IPO, allowing them to gauge interest and potential. However, Katrine Bosley, former CEO of Avila Therapeutics, which was acquired by Celgene, urges biotech executives to start building rapport with public investors well before setting in motion plans for an IPO.

Startup biotech companies that want to achieve long-term success should strive to be more innovative while remaining independent rather than wait for a major drugmaker to acquire them, experts said at the 11th annual MassBio Investors Forum in Massachusetts. Biotech firms that work on "breakthrough technology" will attract more investment than those trying to find ways to use old technology, said Alan Crane, a venture capital executive and former CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals.

Biotechnology companies already burdened with funding treatments nearing market approval are entering into agreements with private-equity firms to create separate entities to help shoulder the risk and cost associated with developing promising early-stage drugs. This financing mechanism fell out of favor amid some scandals involving off-balance sheet arrangements, but the new deals are transparent and the entities' financial dealings are covered in the parent company's statements.